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Tristan Alexander Ross
'Tristan Alexander Ross '(born July 25th, 7 L.C.) is the Fleet Admiral and Minister of the Navy for the Northern Union, and former Grand Sea Lord of the Confederacy of Independent Sovereignties, a former alliance comprising of 12 different nations. He is also a majority owner in numerous endeavors led by the Zundrbar Corporation, such as the Zundrbar Shipping Company, Zundrbar Air, and more. Ross has been renowned to be very adept at tactical planning on battlefields and in naval skirmishes, and is somewhat feared because of such regard. In his 14 years of total naval service, starting at the unusually young age of 13, it took him only 10 years to reach the status of Admiralty, and has held Admiralty for 6 years. Ross is also known to be very business aggressive, with a very large and prestigious investment portfolio behind his name. Despite such huge assets, he does his best in order to hide his wealth and net worth from the public eye, and would rather live a more simple and humble life. However, this becomes the exact opposite mindset he has in trading negotiations. Appearance Ross is well known for his large build, standing at the impressive height of 6 feet, 5 inches, and weighing in at 211 pounds. In many ways, he is very athletic, and tuned for overall endurance, with the ability to make very quick bursts of energy and strength in times of need. His skin colour would be rather pale, not sickly pale, but simple pale complexion, which is shocking, noting the time he spends outdoors. This may be due to the fact that he has lived in Ironforge for the past 10 years. His hair colour would be a mid to dark brown colour, and it is visibly getting darker over the years. His hairstyle would be rather well kept, with some intentional messiness. Along with his hair, would be a full beard, also well kept, and trimmed to not bush out, being close to his face. His face would be rather weathered, from the stress and daily duties of his work, and thus, makes him appear older than what he really is, including the beard that his face dons. From a distance, one would guess he would be in his early to mid 30's. His eye colour would be rather rare, being a metallic gray, with a small ring of hazel circling his pupil. This is a standout in his family, as no other members had or have this eye colour, with everyone else having blue, or brown. Armoury & Weaponry His large and heavy set of platemail was designed to be able to double up as his casual wear, due to the lightweight metals used, and it's flexibility. The armour itself would be matching accordingly to the colours of the Ironcloak Union, dark gray and white, with a neat crimson trim. The tabard of the Union, as well as a cape, would be worn with it. He usually elects not to wear it, but there is a cowl on this set of armour as well, matching the colour scheme. When not doubling up as casual wear, a fully protective helmet would be worn on his head, which also acts a fully protective face mask, with some spikes, just incase he decides headbutting the opponent would be the most fitting move in a scenario. On his right hip, a sheath would be hooked, a shortsword resting inside, just above that, one of two holsters would also be hooked, with another holster identical to it, on his left hip, both holsters holding his revolvers. He would sometimes however be out of said armour in normal, civilian clothing, however this would prove to be rather uncommon, his favourite set in such conditions would consist of a finely crafted top that appeared to follow a Gilnean design, with matching, yet ever-so offset, pants, and likewise boots. He would also have fingerless gloves adorning his hands. As always, his two trusty revolvers and his trusty rifle would be on his person, but no swords would be, proving to be too cumbersome to fit a more casual set. On his belt would hang a small lantern and some kerosene oil in it's respective vial in order to light it, though it's size is largely outdone by it's bright gleam in the night. Early Life and Childhood Born on a sunny afternoon on July 25th, 7 L.C., one would come to expect that his upbringing would be a rather easy one, given his priviledged life he lives now. However, this would be the complete opposite, his father being the only true person to care for him in his family, and his mother, being overly abusive, commonly threatening his life and well being. At the age of 12, during a Blackrock Orc raid on the town of Lakeshire, his father was caught up in the commotion, and was later found slain in the streets, along with many others. His mother had stayed in the safety of the home, and lived, which turned out to be unfortunate, allowing her to continue tormenting and abusing him. At the age of 13, a young Ross had decided that enough was enough, and planned to put an end to all of the violence and the suffering. One year later after his father's death, his mother had went to join him to the grave, and her death was dealt by her own son's hands. In order to escape conviction of the crime, he quickly fled to Stormwind, where he lied about his age, proclaiming he was 16, and enlisted for the Grand Alliance Navy, effectively starting his naval career. Teenage Years At the age of 14, after a year of training for war from the Grand Alliance Navy, he was sent off to Theramore Isle, and continued to hone and fine tune his fighting and commanding abilities there until he turned 18 years of age. His cover about his true age was blown when he was 16, however, since he was caught at the minimum age for enlistment, he was given little to no punishment, and the officers let him slide. At the age of 17, he was assigned to his first formal crew roster, aboard the HMS Approach, a small frigate that did routine patrols around Theramore Isle and the coast of Dustwallow Marsh. Assigned to be the ship's navigator, it was his first chance at proving himself that he was adept at being able to have some form of command. At the age of 18, he was allowed to leave Theramore Isle, as his formal studies and overall training had ended, and decided to live in Ironforge, not to return to his previous home in Lakeshire, not only because of the ongoing Blackrock Orc invasions, but also to continue avoiding prosecution. Early Adulthood His years in Ironforge started rather peacefully and smoothly, until he was called out to serve on the HMS Goliath, a far larger ship, being a heavy brigantine, and was denoted as the Third Officer aboard the vessel, a position he held for the next 6 years. During his time on the HMS Goliath, it was here he was forced to do darker and dirtier deeds, all of which he refuses to talk about. His actions in doing such deeds could be considered insubordination at times, as he would be given orders not to do them, either directly, or by inferencing. However, the reason why he had committed such horrible deeds were because he had encountered the people that had harmed him, or his closest friends, or his father, in the past. Taking liberty of such opportunities, he would mercilessly kill said people who ever brought him, or anyone else close to him, pain, and also being able to worm out of accusations of murder, by using numerous excuses, in which the high ranking officers believed him. He was able to get away with the killings of 13 people this way, with absolutely nothing on record to prove them, thanks to his deception to high ranking officials. After realizing what he had done however, it had left him an emotionally torn man, almost unable to live with himself, and at times, contemplating suicide. From this, he now has Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and commonly gets flashbacks of these events. Only to add up to this, his older brother, Heinrein, was also killed in action while fighting against the Scourge, during the Scourge Invasion of Stormwind, leaving him even more distraught and lost. The Past 5 Years and Current Age After his service on the HMS Goliath as the Third Officer, he was promoted to the rank of Captain, and given command of the HMS Vulcan, a medium-sized galleon, a designation he held aboard that vessel for 2 years, until being promoted to the rank of Rear Admiral Lower Half, and making it his flagship for the remaining service time he had with the Grand Alliance Navy. At the age of 24, he was brought in for a court marital, over the situation with him and his ship in during the Reclaimation of Gilneas, accused of the charges of intentionally causing collateral damage. While he had never done such actions, he chose the route of resignation from his post, after being offered by Prince Ghlafferge Sootbeard of Zundrbar the rank of full Admiral in his newly formed Navy, which needed a formidable leader, and quoted that he saw Ross "more than readily fit and able for the job". Beginning his career with the Principality of Zundrbar, he had made it his overall goal to begin immediate investment into building up a large and stalwart navy for the nation, which at first was going by slowly, in rather small ammounts, until he had begun investments into other ventures Zundrbar had been involved in as well, eventually leading to the foundation of the Zundrbar Corporation, alongside the Prince himself, and Captain Folgrin Ironbeard of the Mountaineers. The Zundrbar Corporation grew incredibally fast, immediately bringing great profits to not only the nation itself but also the investors involved, with Ghlafferge and Tristan being big winners. Ross would put nearly 80% of his overall profits into investing the construction of the Zundrbar Navy, eventually financing the construction of over 40 ships, and 3 Gnomish submarines, and thus founded the Zundrbar Shipping Corporation with said Navy. Living a rather prosperous and peaceful life, Ross decided it would be best to help in being the diplomatic leader for Zundrbar in their times of political tension with the Legion of Arathor, Kingdom of the Hills, and Dominion of Alterac, being able to help delay the inevitable boiling over point by at least a year. During voyages and missions into Northrend, a man had approached him in The Howling Fjord, who approached him out of the fact that he looked "rather familiar" to him, and engaged in a lenghty conversation, that was mostly focused on the topic of the city of Lakeshire, which at the time, was coming out as weird. But it was soon understood why he had spoke about Lakeshire, and the life of it, as the man told him that he was his brother, Heinrein, who had died during the Scourge Invasion of Stormwind, resurrected as a death knight. Reunited with his formerly deceased brother, he had allowed him to come back with him to Zundrbar, and live out the rest of his live with "most likely the only family you (Heinrein) have left." At the age of 26, he was one of the main proponents for a 3-way alliance, forged between the Kingdom of the Hills, the Dominion of Alterac, and the Principality of Zundrbar, which eventually paved the way to the Confederacy of Independent Sovereignties, or CIS, for short-hand. The CIS would go on to not only include these 3 powers, but also many other smaller ones, eventually gaining the membership of 12 different militias, nations, and guilds. In mid-December, he had found love for the first time in a long time, with a woman named Denalia Devlin. A hunter, trapper, scout, and farmer from Westfall, Ross had courted with her for 6 months, until something odd had happened. In an invasion on Zundrbar by Angerfang Orcs, the townsfolk were ordered to defend the capital city at all costs, in which both he and Denalia did. While the Zundrbarians did win, after the fight, Denalia was nowhere to be seen, and presumed missing. After a rather extensive search of the surrounding region with no results, the search was called off. While the Zundrbarian government was unable to confirm a death, they do state that Denalia's whereabouts are otherwise unknown, and some formal business papers do state her as deceased in absentia, though the government has never acknowledged such status. In a self-financed attempt to prolong the search, he took his large Ship-of-the-line, the SMS Siegen, out of dock from Boerland, and sailed along the eastern coast of the Eastern Kingdoms for the next 4 months, claiming it was an "extended expedition of diplomatic envoy and trading convoy". Only originally intended to last from the month of July to August, his ship was sabotaged by the Steamwheedle Cartel when he docked in Bogspaddle, a large bomb exploding the aft of his vessel, causing him to wrestle his ship back to Boerland for repairs for the next month and a half, finally making it back in late September. After getting his fleet rounded up together, and his SMS Siegen fully repaired, he took a formal resignation from duty, wishing to take a break from sailing, but it was only a few weeks later that a familiar face, Geranelm Syla, the former leader of the Kingdom of the Hills, invited him back out to embrace the seas again, with the EITC. After mulling it over for the next couple of days, he gladly accepted the offer, allowing him to retain the command of his SMS Siegen, as well as two smaller vessels, the SMS Fürimmer and the SMS Bemühung. It only took Ross a week to prove to Syla that he was still the same Fleet Admiral he had been for the past 3 and a half years, and gladly gave him his old position back, as well as a spot on the EITC Conclave of Directors, which gave him a minority share in the company itself, by his contract's rights. Quickly growing a large following of support in the company, it did not take long for Ross to find love again, as one of the members, Lendsela Anne Wilkins, became the one he fancied, and started yet another courtship. During all of this, Ghlafferge Sootbeard had randomly disappeared, and thus, he made it his personal mission, until the end of his days, to search Ghlafferge, and find him, causing him to go across most of the Eastern Kingdoms and all of southern Kalimdor, until all of the clues leading him to Uldum, where he had found a very small camp, most likely being his, and left a series of messages behind, alerting Ghlafferge that he was looking for him, and told him where to find him. Within the next month and a half of doing this, Ghlafferge had appeared in Stormwind again, shocking practically everyone, and even drew more jaw-dropping events, as he fully merged the Zundrbar Corporation into the EITC, thus giving Ross all of his ships back, all 40 of them, and all under his control, as well as all of his other assets in many other smaller subsidiaries he had invested in. But also in the same night in which these events had occured, Ross made the bold decision to propose to Lendsela Anne Wilkins, in which she overjoyingly accepted, and thus, getting engaged with her. The future can only look upwards from here, as his life seems to be getting better and better as the days go on by. However, while Ross' life became rather well, the life of the company in which he was a Conclave member of, the EITC, was steadily going into disrepair, as interior conflicts ate at the members amongst the Conclave, Captains, and the Viceroy himself, eventually causing a major collapse in trust, and thus, many Conclave members and Captains leaving the company. As the mass walk-out occured, the folding of the EITC happened as well, bringing the company to a close rather quickly. Luckily, as the Zundrbar Corporation had major investments in the EITC, it offered to buy out whatever assets were left in the company, and was granted to do so, almost instantanously, and allowed Ross to keep his fleet, his rank, and his net worth in the end. But instead of deciding to go straight back to work, he took the liberty, in light of the Feast of Winter Veil, to have an elongated shore leave. Upon returning, he was - once again - contacted by Geranelm Syla, and then encountered by him not soon after in the streets of Stormwind. The Kingdom of the Hills was being resurrected, reborn as a new nation once lost, in the Grizzy Hills in Northrend, and was offered command of the Navy there. Pondering the choice, he accepted, under the condition that his Jonkheership not be put into jeopardy. The terms were accepted, and he was once again reunited with former EITC and Zundrbarian comrades. As the reclaimation of the Grizzly Hills came to a close, with a set of major victories at the Battle of Bloodmoon Isle and the Siege of Solstice Village, the final action was done by him, accompanied by Reggad and Caileach, to plant the flag on Dun Argol. With the deed done, the campaign to reclaim and unify the Hills was finally complete, marking a beginning of a new era for the Kingdom. It was then decided, that to continue to pursuit of emposing their strength and power, and to be recognized once again as a soverign nation, that 20 rings should be forged, and also, a very powerful blade, leading to the quest of finding the rare materials required for such a process, going as far as Mount Hyjal to collect them, only to bring them back home, to a large, enchanted anvil on the highest peak in the Kingdom, to forge the Sword of Rußbart (pronounced rus-baht). Caileach took the materials and forged the sword, while the onlookers, Reggad, Rina, and Bluie, blessed it their gazes of the process of the forging, and it was then given to Tristan to wield, and christened by him once that was done. During the Siege of Solstice, it appeared that he was somehow bitten by a Worgen while in battle, yet it went unnoticed, simply treated as a normal laceration, likely because it was so close to a large gash, it was just overlooked. Naturally, the affliction went on to take its toll, eventually peaking few days later, where he would start to suffer his first transformation, luckily it was in private. It took a bit of time for him to get used to all of this, such as, well first off, regaining his sanity and control of his actions! He was eventually helped through this process by his comrades of the Hills, who had captured him as he was strolling around the Amberpine Lodge. Not only did that take a bit of time, but so did the proccess of turning back into his original, Human form as well. But, he acknowledges now, after pulling himself back together, and regaining his mind, that he is indeed afflicted now, and life must go on as it has been, no matter what happens. Around a week after this, he and Samuel Alberic, otherwise known as Reggad, were mingling in a tavern in Stormwind, drinking and sharing family memories together, as well as looking into Reggad's family biography book, until they had started to realize some rather uncanny similarities to eachothers childhoods, especially when it came to eachothers fathers. It did not take long for the two to realize, that eachothers fathers, were indeed brothers, and that much of their childhoods had been spent together, toying with eachother in Lakeshire, and even more so, both of them even had rather similar pasts. This brought joy to both of them equally, as both thought they didn't have any living family left, yet this proved otherwise. As time passed on however, the Hills were not fairing well in the long run, being forced to become a temporary government-in-exile while they were able to find shelter within the Ironcloak Vanguard. During this time, the Hills were able to slowly reclaim their territory, but many changes were made to the military, and unfortunately, his navy was formally written off the military expidenture budget, thus eliminating that branch, and putting Ross essentially "out of work", so to speak. Deciding to still dedicate his life to naval expedition and service, he once again garrisoned most of his vessels back to his province of Boerland, and took out his flagship to go on a second search for Ghlafferge Sootbeard, after he went missing a few months prior. He had only told a select number of people of his travels, such as his cousin Reggie, his significant other Lendsela, and one of his closest friends Bluie, before leaving. He hadn't been heard from after he left, and his whereabouts had since been unknown, as well as if he is still alive or not. On the very early morning of August 27th, 35 LC however, he would dispell the rumours of his death, in the most physical way possible, by returning from his travels to find Ghlafferge. While he had returned unharmed and well alive, it would prove that his search for Ghlafferge was fruitless, he found no traces of him anywhere leading to a conclusion that he may still be alive. As he returned, arriving in Stormwind in the dark of night, he had such luck of running into Reggad almost the very first thing as he left the Harbour. Asking many questions about the status of the Iron Hills, he found not much has changed, but people have came and gone. Orghue went off to the military, Korven was killed, Lendsela hasn't been heard since the day after he left, Geranelm went to go with the Scarlets, and so on. He was given his rank back as Fleet Admiral upon arrival however, as Reggad was able to become uncontested as the Regent-Lord, and stated to him that "in my eyes, you were never demoted.", and apparently his arrival was only just in time, for the Iron Hills were to wage war with the Forsaken alongside a coalition of allied forces in Hillsbrad. Life continued as normal, but something continued to eat at him on the inside; Lendsela's disappearance. Over time, the weight of her not being around had pressured him into drinking even more heavily than he already had been, as well as smoking, in order to attempt to numb the pain. It became evident that she wouldn't be returning, and if he had known where she went, or if anyone knew, for that matter, then he would try to reach out to her. But it was no use, with her fate in mystery, he had to move on. But furthermore, he also realized that he had been abusing alcohol and tobacco, and brought himself to start cleaning himself up. However, he had little motivation to do such, and rather than just flat out stop, he would just go back to however much he'd been consuming before, which was still an unhealthy amount. Not long after, he would come across a Paladin and Confessor of the Light, Serenity Illusia. She took notice that Tristan had some issues, some personal demons, he had to rid himself of, and allowed him to speak his issues to her. But it wasn't just the fact she saw that Tristan had problems, and just wanted to help, she had also taken an interest into him, and little did she know that Tristan had taken an interest into her, as well. As time progressed, and their relationship grew closer, it became evident they had developed feelings for one another. He still missed Lendsela, though. Ironically, the Confessor did the confessing on this one, and Tristan admitted the feelings were mutual. They had then decided they'll give it a shot, and began courting. This new love, in addition to Tristan's want to clean up, gave him to motivation to start heavily reducing how much he drank and smoke. He even had a temptation to take up retraining his ability to manifest the powers and abilities of the Light, but he dismissed it for the time being, wanting to decide on that later. While he was dedicated to cleaning up his act, the stability within the Ironcloak Union was in question. After certain failed defenses at prominent strongholds, and some troops leaving the ranks, it was very uncertain if the Union would be able to hold their positions, let alone be held together and continue. After a number of pyrric victories and close defeats, the Union had fell apart from the inside out, their member nations disbanding the agreement one by one. In a situation that would be rather déjà vu, much like the disappearance of Denalia Devlin 3 years prior, his current romantic interest at the time, Serenity, would also end up missing in action after a city defense, prompting yet another failed extensive search. Tristan simply couldn't tie a girl down. After the Union decided to disband, he decided to yet again take another break from Naval command, and focus purely on political matters until Ghlafferge was either found dead or alive, or he returns from his inexplicably long and unannounced absence, though he was quoted saying that he may not be able to stay away from the sea for long. What he had said, ended to be true. Upon returning from Kalimdor on a short expedition to search for anything new with Ghlafferge, he would soon be admitted to the Regency Council of the Hills, and given direct authority over the Hills Navy, meaning that he would once again, return to the seas and live a life of navalism. The Hills thrived again and quickly, the campaign to reclaim lost territory coming along slowly although successfully. The Hills Navy was originally put on the backburner, the land campaign having far more emphasis, but once land up to the Howling Fjord region was retook, the Navy was once again a full-go. It is in this time that Tristan was asked by some merchant sailors to guarantee their safety with a fleet of patrol ships, so that trade could conduct safely and without the worries of attacks from pirates or Forsaken. Rather than build a plethora of ships to fulfill that duty, however, he opted to gather the minds of his shipwrights to produce a new ship class, to not only be able to trade, but also fight and hold it's own if need be. The Chebec, essentially a combination of a Corvette and Xebec, proved to be heavily successful when thrust into it's role, allowing for great financial stability in the future due to their self-reliance on the seas. However, interior conflicts once again came to rise between some of the high ranks, and this time Tristan simply stayed to his own, continuing to do his job, lessons learnt from prior experiences in this same situation. The Hills fell, although far more quietly this time, simply fading away rather than having a huge controversy, surrounded with drama. Not long after, the return of the Legion beckoned him out to sea in his flagship for one last time, aiding the Alliance Navy in any opportunity to transport troops and fight off any ships who dared interfere. Although his efforts were not in vain, he returned to the Eastern Kingdoms on the offer of commanding a gunship within the Pride of Gnomeregan, per recommendation of Zundrbarians within their ranks to their High Tinker. Despite initial rough patches and being viewed with skepticism, he has been otherwise accepted and respected enough to hold his position without any contention. However, this assignment was very short lived, with the Pride of Gnomeregan disbanding within the same month. Given news about Geranelm and Bluie both being in the Broken Isles, he decided to go out yet again and search for them, but not before bringing along an old friend, Nevari Moonleaf who also had became a love interest. Over the course of the trip, Nevari and Tristan became closer and closer to one another, with Nevari helping Tristan get in touch with his Worgen side, being able to understand it, and be at peace with it. At the end of the trip, with Geranelm and Bluie found, they vowed to make a return to Northrend, founding the Northern Federation as a result, with the goal to colonize, and make a new society. Naturally, Tristan was named Fleet Admiral of it's Navy, although not all ended up going according as planned. While it started out smoothly, other groups of people all around them conspired against them, and each other, inevitably leading to the downfall of everybody involved. With nowhere to really go to, he decided to take a hiatus and go to Stormwind, but in transit, ended up being caught in a horrible storm midway, leaving the ship he used to be lost to it, forcing him to slowly drudge his way back on a small, single-mast dinghy. It was not an easy, nor a short journey. But he returned to horrid news, the Northern Federation fell completely with nothing left to show for it, and Geranelm Syla was presumed dead. Rather than take time to mourn these losses however, he went to seek out Nevari instead. He found her serving with the Clergy of the Holy Light, and decided to speak with Moorwhelp about a potential role for himself, and ended up being given the assignment of creating a sort of hired blade, security firm for the Clergy, but much like the Pride of Gnomeregan, this too was a short lived assignment. As both he and Nevari left the Clergy to go on about their lives, they came to see a familiar sight while in Stormwind. Geranelm Syla, was alive, and apparently well. He had made his intentions clear that he wished to get the old group of trustworthy allies back together for another big project, something he left in the dark until the final moment, but something that both agreed to doing nonetheless. The SMS Siegen ''Main Article: SMS Ghlaff's Siegen'' The SMS Siegen, his flagship, is an absolutely enormous Ship-Of-The-Line, and is one of the two flagships of the Zundrbar Navy, the other being the very first vessel he had been posted on in his naval career the HMS Approach, that had been rebuilt and converted into a Ship-Of-The-Line, in almost equal size to Ross's own. 128 canon would be the total arnament of the vessel, with 64 on each side, making sure that any volley fired from this vessel be an impending hell for opponents at sea. The cargohold, being able to hold up to 400 tons of cargo, made sure it was also able to safely transport many goods across the seas. His crew compliment would be overly large, with around 700 total men aboard, and around 15 high ranking officers to control it. With 4 total masts, and large rectangle sails, it has a maximum speed of 14 knots, though it commonly cruises around 9 to 10. As of recent, in honour of Ghlafferge Sootbeard, he had added his nickname to the ship's christening, becoming the SMS Ghlaff's Siegen, literally translating to "Ghlaff's Triumphs" from Hill Dwarvish to Common. Gallery trisandseren.jpg|Tris and Serenity (by Falcko, thanks Falcko!) TrisArtTheZombieCatCommish.png|Tristan Ross (credit to The-Zombie-Cat) Titles OOC Disclaimer ((Ongoing WIP, of course.)) ((It's long. I might have made mistakes! Help me out if I did! Please notify me!)) Category:Eastern Initiative Trading Company Category:Zundrbar Category:Zundrbar Military Category:Naval Officers Category:Characters Category:Human Category:Stormwindian